Final LOVAC Update news

Hello Everyone, At the time of writing this is my second attempt at writing this update. I accidentally reloaded the page after writing for half an hour on the last go around so don’t worry this mod Isn’t canceled. I wouldn’t put this much effort into a mod that’s being canceled.

Today I will be delivering you the most comprehensive Lovac update you will ever get. The goal of this update is to share with you all the absolute status of the mod through and through. Alot of companies and mod teams like to keep their progress close to the chest but Team LOVAC is different. We want you all to know exactly what is going on. So first things first.

This mod is delayed. Yep, This mod Isn’t coming out this month and therefore won’t be coming out this year. After the October update I worked on the mod for a few more weeks and burned out hard. LOVAC has been incredibly taxing on me and my mental health this past year. I’ve been obsessed with developing this mod and getting my vision out there for people to play but something always gets me digging deeper, going bigger and bolder. Scope creep on steroids.

Anyway I’m back on the horse now after a short break and I’m ready to finish this thing once and for all. I’ll waste no more time let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Lovacs campaign comprises 17 playable levels with a play time of 5 to 10 minutes or longer. Overall there are 19 maps in the game. 17 being the playable levels and 2 being full fledged cutscenes which required their own maps. The levels are split into 5 chapters.

LOVAC
TOWER
MEMORIES
ROCK BOTTOM
LAST CHANCE

All subject to change but each chapter contains 3 to 4 levels. PS don’t worry about spoilers I won’t include any. If you gleam spoilers from the Chapter names then you may be too smart to be playing LOVAC.

Status of every LOVAC level. I don’t want to say Almost done in every descriptor so I’m only including what’s left to do.

CHAPTER 1 LOVAC

Cutscene: Requires face posing and a proper transition to the next level

Intro 1 Requires opening cutscene

Intro 2 Requires enemy balancing and item placement + 1 tutorial

CHAPTER 2 TOWER

Tower 1 Requires intro cutscene, Level detail polishing, 1 voice line

Tower 2 Requires level detail polishing + Level ending cutscene

Tower 3 Requires in game item shop currency placement + Cutscene

Tower 4 Requires scripting

CHAPTER 3 MEMORIES

SECRET Requires faceposing and heavy scripting

Tower 5 Requires sound file placements as well as 1 npc to player interaction

Tower 6 Requires level detailing + Voice work

Tower 7 Requires cutscene and level transition

CHAPTER 4 ROCK BOTTOM

SECRET 2 Requires polish + Story transition

Tower 8 Requires scripting

Tower 9 Requires heavy face posing

SECRET 3 Requires faceposing for intro to the level

CHAPTER 5 LAST CHANCE

Tower 10 Requires heavy scripting + Level outro

Finale 1 Requires Heavy scripting + 1 cutscene

Finale 2 Requires 2 cutscenes

Cutscene 2 Requires extra scenes + Voicework

And that’s it. I know It looks like a lot but really all we need is the voicework. Lovac is a story game first so everything falls into place the moment we input the voice acting. For weapons we have a selection of:

Fists
9MM Pistol

Mateba Hand cannon

Grey Line SMG

Tactical Shotgun

AK24 Rifle

Grenade Launcher

We had an energy launcher but It does the same job as the Grenade Launcher so It was removed. Currently all the animations are in game save for the AK24 which our animator is working on. All the weapons are in need of a sound design rework from HL2s sounds but that will be a simple job. For special offensive features we also have some options for the player with the health steal ability, the quick grenade ability and the quick melee ability.

After 5 kills the player can quick melee an average enemy to regain their health, Pressing G throws a grenade and pressing F has Sam throw a punch. Punching an enemy before gaining Health Steal will reset the counter to zero just so the player can’t run around chaining melee and being invincible. Long time followers of Lovac will remember how we aimed to have doom style gameplay. We are getting rid of that due to how it just feels bad. Being able to essentially tap into the speed force also cuts the campaign time in half so we’re not really looking to give the player crazy abilities. The player is still far more durable than a base Half Life 2 player so they can take on way more enemies and make riskier moves during gunfights.

Voice work is coming along. I think the most under pressure member of our team is our VA for Sam Cooper. Sam is the main character and Has a lot of lines that need to be of high quality so development really moves with the receiving on lines from Sams VA. I personally play a few characters in the game but most prominently Chester Young the CEO of Grey Line in the game. I think I’ve spent more time writing Chester lines than saying them at this point but Sam spends a lot of time in game interacting with Chester so I’m waiting for Sams VA to send in lines so I can bounce off them more in my own performance. Many other characters in the mod have been fully voiced like Captain Holloway who is voiced by CW3D. You all may know Him for His Gman voice work in other mods or Virgil the turret in Entropy Zero 2.

Music is done or close to it. SurgicalAsh5 has possibly created one of the most robust mod soundtracks ever with over 25 tracks made during the lifetime of this project. Currently Surgical is on winddown mode for this mod. I have Him making Ambient tracks and the final credits music so that is done and dusted.

Models are done too. Gear has created an entire game's worth of models for Lovac. Some modified from Half Life 2 and some completely original. There’s nothing much more to say about models we have enough and then some.

Writing is as close to done as ever. We have gone through countless script changes on this mod which isn’t always a good thing but on this mod It has been for the best with every new iteration making the world more fleshed out. Alot of mods have the luxury of having the HL games as backdrop for their lore but Lovac is completely original and since the content of the game has a global sized plot the world needs to be pretty fleshed out outside of the actual gameplay. I think I might be going insane, I can’t place a graffiti overlay on a brick wall in a map anymore without my brain automatically coming up with lore on why It’s there. Writing the mod has taught me alot about efficiency when it comes to doing a story. Lessons I will 100% take over to my next mod.

Alrighty and that is it for this mod update. I think a lot of people rush into mod development without knowing what it takes to make one. The key to success is persistence. I see alot of mods that start with a great idea and a lot of hype only to fizzle out after a month or two when people realize that modding requires you to make the mod even when you don’t want to. Lovacs development has been on and off since 2020. I wrote the thing early that year and rushed the alpha out before may. After the alpha I went off and started a career before starting working again in January this year. January. We’ve been going strong for a long time now but the truth is that Lovac needs to be finished now. There is no more iterating to do, There is no more script to write and there is no more conceptualization that needs to be done. The only thing to do is to finish the thing.

And that’s what I intend to do.

TLDR: Mod is being developed, give us a little more time :)